www.byzcath.org Forums General Discussions Town Hall Saint Spyridon or our Lady of Guadalupe?

Someone should tell the webmaster of the web site of the "Byzantine Catholic Church in America" that today, 12 December, according to the Byzantine Calendar (Revided Julian Calendar) we do celebrate the memory of our Father among the Saints Spyridon the Wonderworker, bishop of Trimithous and not the feast of our Lady of Guadalupe. I do not expect from a Latin to celebrate the Byzantine feast of the Life-Giving Fountain on the Friday of Easter because this feast has got a local character (it is a feast only for Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox) having its origin in one of the shrines of the Mother of God in Constantinople so why should we celebrate the Feast of our Lady of Guadalupe? Those Byzantine Catholic in America wanting to celebrate this feast of the Most Holy Mother of God can join their Mexican and Latin American brothers in Christ at the nearest Spanish-speaking Roman Catholic Parish (Viva la Virgen de Guadalupe! Viva Mejico!!!).

P. S. By the way The Feast of the Virgin of Guadalupe is not a universal feast of the Roman Church.

I believe it is proper to celebrate this feast. It is a significant feast for Hispanics, and by celebrating with them we may help preserve their Catholic identity (sure beats losing them to various Protestant denominations). We had a beautiful vespers last night for Our Lady of Guadalupe, and had a Mexican dance group come and perform for us. As for Saint Spyridon, I'll be sure to look him up and learn about him. Thank you for bringing him to my attention. I'm still learning....

I also noticed that the handout for last night's vespers was approved by our Bishop Andrew. As Our Lady of Guadalupe is a symbol of the pro-life movement, I think it is important to acknowledge her in this manner. There's room for both (celebrations) on this day for sure. God bless you Francisco.

Slava Isusu Christu!
Glenn

Francisco,

Living in Europe, you are probably unaware that the Byzantine Catholic Metropolitinate of Pittsburgh added the feast to the liturgical calendar. As in the Latin Church, this is a local celebration for the Metropolitinate. The webmaster is correct, this website is entitled "Byzantine Catholic Church in America". Father Maximos of Holy Resurrection Monastery wrote the hymnography for the feast, which I believe the Admin arranged to the proper tones. Mexicans can be found in the various parishes of the eparchies in the Americas.

(el subdiacono) Juan Montalvo

Francisco:

A most interesting saint - I checked out several sites on him, and this one was pretty detailed:

http://home.it.net.au/~jgrapsas/pages/st_spyridon.htm

Thanks again for your post about him!

Salva Isusu Christu!
Glenn

Personnaly, I like the way the Metrapolia in America arranged the Feast. St. Spyridon was moved to Wednesday so that we could celebrate him then Our Lady of Guadalupe on Thursday.
I feel the this particular Feast of Our Lady is too important to the Pan-American psyche to be ignored. Although it may not be universal, it is very precious to so many in the new world. Plus, Our Lady appeared in Mexico around the same time that the Ruthenians were re-uniting with the Church of Rome. Perhaps she felt the need to suppervise even though it was taking place thousands of miles away! Perhaps the native Mexican Indians were not the only people she was leading to the Church at that time.

Dmitri

Dear Francisco,

The Ruthenian Church as a sui generis Eastern Catholic Church celebrates officially the Feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe.

The Ukrainian Catholic Church does not. But this is a Ruthenian website (as I am myself sometimes reminded by others here . . . ).

Particular Churches may establish their own calendars and feasts as they wish.

The Melkites, for example, celebrate the Feast of the Dormition of St Joseph on March 19th. They also observe the Feast of Corpus Christi which is not called that . . .

In the East Slavic Orthodox tradition, the Feast of the Protection is a national feast and has a prominence that it does not have in other Orthodox Churches.

Did you know that the miraculous image of the Pillar of Saragossa in Spain is also venerated in icon form in the East?

There is even an Akathist to it which I have.

What is the story behind it?

Alex

Alex, I have heard rumors that the Ukrainian Catholic monastery in California keeps the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe...who knows, maybe some other places do too. Don

Hi Alex,

I think I have seen the icon you're referring to, and I always thought it looked like Our Lady of Loretto. I put the two side by side:

http://www.angelfire.com/pa/slavic/loretto.html

I too am curious about this particular icon. I had the title in Slavonic around here somewhere, but I can't seem to locate it now.

-Dave

The URL on that graphic is wrong. I made it a while ago, and when "iconpublish.com" was active. The URL now is http://www.ermey.ru/

-Dave

Dear Dave,

That beautiful icon that looks so much like our Lady "del Pilar" or of Loretto is called "Pribavleniye Uma" or "Podatelnitsa Uma" - The Giver of Mind/Reason (?).

Here is the site where there is an Akafist in its honour:

http://www.prilutsk.mrezha.ru/akafist/index_akaf.htm

It is under the Slavonic "B" in the listing of the Akafists under "Pribavleniye."

Alex

Our Lady of Guadalupe is Patroness of the Americas, not just patroness of Roman Catholic Mexicans.

Her image is an icon not made by hands.

Funny thing is that on the Ruthenian liturgical calendar put out by Byzantine Seminary Press, on the front of the page, St. Spyridon is listed on the 11th, and OLG on the 12th. Turn the page over & check the martyrology, and St. Spyridon is on the 12th, and OLG is not to be found.

We will celebrate Divine Liturgy this evening for Ourl Lady of Guadalupe.

Sharon

Dear Friends,

I understand that "Guadalupe" is a form of the Aztec word for "crushes the serpent."

As the image belongs to the "Immaculate Conception" variety, it is entirely appropriate that St Juan Diego is honoured on December 9th - the Eastern Churches' Feast of the Conception of St Anne.

Robert Lentz, by the way, has beautiful Byzantine-style icons of Our Lady of Guadalupe AND of St Juan Diego with the image on his tilma.

Alex

What about the liturgical unity with our Orthodox brothers? What about the idea of the restoration of the links with your Mother Churches? What about rediscovering your Orthodox roots? What about the idea of being bridges between the East and the West? All these ideas are just words, words and more words? If you want to remove your Byzantine feasts and to substitute them for Western ones that will be your historical responsibility. The feast of Saint Spyridon reminds us the struggles for the Orthodox faith of the Holy Fathers of the First Ecumenical Council of Nicea. If you want to insert in your calendar Western feasts I can suggest you a lot of them, I can also suggest you to adopt the whole Western Calendar (Easter according to the Western Calendar for the mobile feast and the Western Latin Calendar for the non mobile ones). If you do not respect your own tradition, if you do not feel proud of your liturgical heritage how can you tell the others (Orthodox, Latin) to respect you and to respect you liturgical tradition and identity?? By the way why do you say "Byzantine" when you mean "Ruthenian"? Are not the Ukranian, the Melkite and the Rumanian "Byzantines" or should they be called "other Byzantines" as they are refered in this web site? Did you tell your Irish and Mexican brothers in America to adopt the feast of the Life-giving Spring? I could write the text of the Latin mass of the Life-giving Spring for them if you want. May the Virgin of Guadalupe (that sounds more Spanish than our Lady of Guadalupe), Saint Spyridon and Saint Alexis Toth, a saint zealous of his liturgical and theological heritage and "champion" of the struggle against the latinization of the Eastern Catholics in America, pray for the "Byzantine Church in America" (more American than Byzantine)

Yours in Christ and very upset,

By the way, Alex, the Virgin "del Pilar" is not only the patroness of Spain, but also of America, because that was the day of her feast (12 October) that Colombus arrived to the New Continent. I consider that this feast should also included in the "Byzantine" calendar of feasts of the "Byzantine Church in America". A feast of the "Dormition of Saint Columbus, equal to the Apostles and enlighter of America" should also be created.